State structure of Ukraine

On the 24-th of August 1991 Ukraine became independent. It started building the democratic state. Ukraine became a presidential — parliamentary republic. Over a short period a new system of state structure was created.

According to the constitution of Ukraine the state power in Ukraine is divided into three branches: legislative, executive and judicial.

The body of legislative power is the Verkhovna Rada which consists of 450 deputies. But in some time the number of deputies is supposed to be 300 according to all Ukrainian referendum, the results of which were approved by the Constitutional Court in July 2000.

Each deputy represents an area of the country, that is called a constituency. The elections to the Verkhovna Rada are held every 4 years. Voting is organized in the form of secret ballot and from the age of 18.

The Verkhovna Rada is headed by the Chairman and is responsible for making laws. It has special committees which discuss and introduce bills for debating at parliamentary sitting. It discusses the questions connected with the State Budget and adopts the Budget for the coming year.

The head of our state is the President. He is elected for 4 years’ period.

The executive power is headed by him. In the areas and 25 regions, Kyiv and Sevastopol

it is carried out by the local administrations.

The main body of the executive power is the Cabinet of Ministers. It is formed by the Heads of the Ministries: Ministry of State, Treasury, Defense, Justice, Agriculture, Com­merce and Health. The Head of the Cabinet which is also called the Prime Minister, is appointed by the President. But the appointments must be approved by the Verkhovna Rada. The Prime Minister is responsible to the President and the Verkhovna Rada.

The judicial power is represented by the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court, nominated by Verkhovna Rada. There are also local and regional courts. The people have opportunity to directly participate in realization of justice through people’s assessors and

The Courts watch over the executive and legislative powers. The Constitutional Court mm the right to declare laws and actions of the government unconstitutional.